Why we charge a submission fee and how it is used.

The last iteration of the journal received hundreds of submissions that we considered poor quality. They often consisted of artists emailing links to their work and nothing else, or otherwise not following the submission guidelines we requested on our website. Out of good faith, we made an effort to spend time with each submission, however, this process of review consumed a great deal of time in reviewing work that was not adequately prepared for publication. It came to the point where we were unwilling to review poorly considered submission materials.

Our $10 submission fee is an amount we’ve determined to be low enough to be affordable for all, and high enough for artists to slow their process of sending work in order to consider their best possible presentation of materials, and to consider our editorial scope to deem if their work will be a good fit within it.

We have found that this method results in a lower volume of submissions at a higher quality, and allows us to manage the site more efficiently. As a small independent platform, we are consistency evaluating each aspect of our publishing model to position ourselves as an efficient, sustainable, and high-quality resource for artists and the photography field at large.

Submission fees are used first to cover administrative costs of running this platform. If those costs become covered, funds are entered into a pool used to support new programming including writer stipends, print publications, and book fair expenses in order to grow the sphere of artist opportunities we can offer.